Written by Faisal Ahmad
Lyrics to Fine Ghadi Biya (Song):
Written by: Laarbi Batma, founding member of Nass El Ghiwane
“FINE GHADI BIYA KHOUYA FINE GHADI BIYA
Where are you taking me brother?
DAKA TABAA DEKA CHKOUNE YHED LBASSE
Knock after knock , who can stop the misery
LA TLOUMOUNA F LGHERBA YA HAD NASSE
O people , Don’t blame us then for living abroad
LA TLOUMOUNA F LGHERBA YA HAD NASSE
O people , Don’t blame us then for living abroad
LA TKEDBOU AALA ROUMIYA MAHI NECHBA
Don’t blame me for loving the western woman .. Because it is not a passing passion
ANA MA NSITE LBENDIR ANA MA NSITE LGESSBA
I haven’t forgotten the bendir ( Kind of drum ) , Neither have I forgotten the “Gasba”
ANA MA NSITE LMOUSSEM W LKHIL SERBA SERBA
I haven’t forgotten the season and the groups of horses
ANA MA NSITE LKOUR WELA MJEMAA TELBA
I haven’t forgotten The religion’s courses in the academy with the religious students
ANA MA NSITE DEWARI YA BLAD LKASSBA
I haven’t forgotten my hamlet , O country of “Kasba”
ANA MA NSITE LAACHIRA WELA GMAH REHBA
I haven’t forgotten my tribe neither the time of harvest
ANA MA NSITE HYATI YA NASSE LEMHABA
O dear people , I haven’t forgotten my life
ANA MA NSITE NASSI KHAYTE HADI NEKBA
I haven’t forgotten my relatives .My story is catastrophe
MA HAMNI WELA RECHANI GHIR FRAK SEHBA
There was nothing I cared about except separation from my friends
MA HAMNI WELA RACHANI LA MA LTERBA
There was nothing I cared about except the reading sound of Koran
MA HAMNI WELA RECHANI CHEMSNA DOWHA JEMRA
There was nothing I cared about except our sun whose light is ember
MA HAMNI WELA RECHANI LA NJOUME LA GEMRA
I didn’t care about stars nor about the moon
MA HAMNI WELA RECHANI YA LIAATE ELGEDRA
O powerful god , I didn’t care about anything
MA HAMNI WELA RECHANI FINE GHADI BIYA
I didn’t care .. where are you taking me brother?”
The Moroccan music band Nass El Ghiwane was a group who articulated a unique perspective on North African national identity during the 1970s. The melancholy melodies and strident rhythms of Nass El Ghiwane produced a rich seam of Moroccan protest songs dating back to their formation in Casablanca in 1970. In this sense the band had Western parallels with protest music performers from the United States of the 1960s such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, who wrote the song Fortunate Son in opposition to the Vietnam War. Yet, Nass El Ghiwane sounded unlike any Western popular music group, since they combined traditional Moroccan musicianship with ancient Sufi musical rhythms and poetry. In doing so, and with lyrics written and sung in the Moroccan dialect about the hardships and injustices of the Moroccan poor, Nass El Ghiwane became symbolic of the linkages between modern Moroccan national identity and the historical memory of its people.
In the historical context of the Moroccan independence from colonial France in 1956, Nass El Ghiwane were able to address themes of social injustice by using a slightly cryptic lyrical style to avoid the widespread government censorship prevalent in the era. This intelligence and keen alertness to the nuances of Moroccan society and its political administration had its counterpoint in the disarming simplicity of the band’s visual style and its reliance on highly traditional musical influences. Thus, as champions of traditional Moroccan music, the band were able to avoid gaining attention from the security services and concentrate on developing a large and profoundly engaged base of listeners.
Nass El Ghiwane were influenced by the Gnawa musical tradition, which was a dominant genre of music in Morocco. Gnawa is linked to Sufism and features rituals where people gather around to preach and feel closer to God by reciting religious Sufi poems beginning with a slow pace and escalating to a quicker paced trance. Although Nass El Ghiwane did not concentrate on religion as a main topic of their music, they linked many of their songs to politics using the same manner of chants that were used in Sufi Islamic music. The Gnawa style brought them closer to the public as it was part of the Moroccan national heritage, providing the group with a narrative of legitimacy. Furthermore, the combination of a chanting style based on religious liturgy on one hand, and lyrics related to themes of national suffering on the other, forged an easy means of access to the hearts of the passionate nationalists who loved their country with a religious fervour.
Written in Moroccan Arabic, the songs of Nass El Ghiwane tap into the legitimacy of the tradition of oral poetry of the Maghreb region, and also the dialect used by ordinary Moroccans. By using exclusively this Moroccan Darija dialect instead of the classical Arabic of the cultural elite, Nass El Ghiwane succeeded in transmitting their message to listeners by using language that they could readily understand, and that they themselves used to discuss their own day to day anxieties and expressions of identity (Simour, 2016). This approach was made more successful because the social background of the band members was similar to that of its audience, with several of the members coming originally from the most disadvantaged areas of the Moroccan city of Casablanca. The aesthetic of the band simultaneously appealed to Moroccan listeners by incorporating simple garments as stage costumes, but also responded to modernity by deviating slightly from Moroccan social norms in their choice of long hair styles. Thus in their lyrical and also their visual style, Nass El Ghiwane provided a bridge between the modern conceptions of national identity and also memories of the national community.
The song Fine Ghadi Biya above contains some of the prevalent themes in the lyrics of the band, namely the corruption of the Moroccan state and the poverty that forced many of the group’s compatriots to travel to Europe as reluctant economic migrants. The lyric “where are you taking me brother?” is an indirect criticism of the Moroccan government, subtly questioning unsuccessful policy directions. In this sense, the band maintained a degree of ambiguity in their themes of protest, reminiscent of the early Blues singers of the United States southern states, whose songs protested against their slave masters without ever risking punishment by naming them. The popularity of the band, and the accessibility of its lyrics, composed in the al-’ayta style of Moroccan pop music, meant that they generated not only fans but also imitators in the form of contemporary bands in other parts of Morocco. Despite this, Nass El Ghiwane were never associated with direct political protest and instead confined themselves to artistic expression. While artists such as Nina Simone, who wrote the song Mississippi Goddam in support of the United States civil rights movement, could be associated with that specific political stance, the politics of Nass El Ghiwane were more difficult to triangulate. While performing lyrics pertaining to social justice and the trials of the Moroccan diaspora, the band preferred to establish a status as a cultural repository of Moroccan identity rather than associating themselves to a particular social movement.
The song Fine Ghadi Biya demonstrates the strong link between the band and their Moroccan identity. In the centre of the song, each verse begins with “I haven’t forgotten” and then it mentions several elements that are particularly associated with Moroccan cultural identity and are uniquely linked to the Moroccan cultural memory, such as representations of agricultural seasons, religious academies, musical instruments, tribes, animals, and geographical neighbourhoods. Mentioning all of these elements of Moroccan socio-cultural life is not only a way to show linkage and an association with the national identity from the band but it is also implicitly engaging with the cultural citizenship of the Moroccan public, with its nostalgic themes operating as a magnet for their emotional attachment to Moroccan and wider Maghreb collectivity. The themes invoked by the lyrics appeal directly to the Moroccans of the lowest social and economic status that lack a voice in the Moroccan community , and this tone initiates a feeling in the listener that the band is a part of them and that they represent the nation, that they are all familiar with the same social, cultural and economic phenomena in Morocco that identifies them as Moroccans therefore they are part of a singular national collectivity.
By self-consciously avoiding the musical and literary culture of the elite, Nass El Ghiwane were able to portray themselves as both participants in mass culture and representatives of Moroccan citizenship. They did this by promoting themselves as guardians of historical memory with their influences from Sufism, but also by becoming torchbearers of a modern Moroccan identity through their blending of traditional musicianship with more modern instruments such as the banjo. In the newly-globalising 1970s the band symbolised the Moroccan identity of the poor and of the dispossessed diaspora, but in a way that permitted their listeners to instantly access the power of nostalgia for the land they were still tied to, if only in memory.
Identity Hunters 